There are a minimum of 1,000,000 Americans with invasive cancer right now. Probably 2,000,000. There are 10,000,000 Americans who have had an invasive cancer and are at risk of having it return. [Cancer stats]

So, even with the minimum number of cancer patients in just the US taking just one dose a day at the lowest mark-up we arrive at a net income of–

$365,000,000 (a million dollars a day)

The drug has nearly paid for its trials in the first year in the worst case and would bring a nice—reliable and permanent!—profit in its second or third year on the market.

Best case (for the drug companies) would be more like 5,000,000 cancer patients on a maintenance dose (no side-effects means this would be logical and even prudent) taking three doses a day at the higher mark-up. This nets in one year–

$9,088,000,000 (24 million dollars a day)

Sure generics and competition would drive profits down a bit but they’re talking about a virtual cure for cancer! There would be a huge amount of money for all players if it worked. I know the pharmaceutical industry is a mess and I wouldn’t put it past most of the companies to be greedy and stupid but I used to work in a copy shop. Ha-ha! Take that, segue. Take that segue?

I made more copies of more sales pitches for more miracle cures than I could count. I think it’s just remotely possible that the Canadian doctor who is pushing this particular miracle cure might not know his prostate from a tumor.

Some in the blogosphere are crying out to force someone to undertake the expense for the trials. If they themselves ponied-up $10,000 each instead, the trials could go ahead. But that's risky—in the bad way: personally. Miracle cures are almost always fiction. Whereas exercise and eating a good diet with lots of raw fruits and vegetables and not smoking will also “cure” cancer in most people because they’ll never get it.

So, how about we force everyone to live right? Legally mandated ounce of prevention. Those who don’t eat their broccoli and grapefruit and turn in their government-issue pedometers bi-weekly and keep their body fat between 10-25% will be sent to government run health camps until they mend their cancerous ways. It would save more lives and more money than any other action humans could attempt.

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The Peacock, they say, did not at first have the beautiful
feathers in which he now takes so much pride. These, Juno, whose
favorite he was, granted to him one day when he begged her for a
train of feathers to distinguish him from the other birds. Then,
decked in his finery, gleaming with emerald, gold, purple, and
azure, he strutted proudly among the birds. All regarded him with
envy. Even the most beautiful pheasant could see that his beauty
was surpassed.

Presently The Peacock saw an Eagle soaring high up in the blue
sky and felt a desire to fly, as he had been accustomed to do.
Lifting his wings he tried to rise from the ground. But the
weight of his magnificent train held him down. Instead of flying
up to greet the first rays of the morning sun or to bathe in the
rosy light among the floating clouds at sunset, he would have to
walk the ground more encumbered and oppressed than any common
barnyard fowl.